About Me

My real name is Brian. I’m currently living near Seoul, South Korea, but after 7 short years I’m planning on returning home to the United States with my Korean wife next year. Since I was a young child I have always been fascinated by maps. They have occupied my mind for countless hours planning my next big adventure and dreaming about places I’ll never go. I received my degree in GIS/Cartography from Texas State University and worked in my field in various capacities before I took a detour and came to South Korea to teach English. I’m planning on returning home to pursue an M.S.in GIS/Remote Sensing.

I joined OpenStreetMap in August 2011 after I took a trip to Nepal and used OpenStreetMap data as a base map for my GPS. I was really impressed with how accurate the data was, and I never would have been able to navigate the streets of Kathmandu without it. I was even for impressed that the data was free, and I wouldn’t have been able to purchase since there wasn’t a commercial data source available for my Garmin GPS. I focus mainly on mapping hiking trails since it combines two of my favorite hobbies together.

Openhiking.org

My primary interest is mapping hiking trails. I hike often, usually 2 times a week both by myself and with my wife. South Korea has many wonderful hiking trails, and it’s difficult to look in any direction and not see a mountain. When I travel to other countries I like to include hiking or trekking into my itinerary since it’s a low cost way to really experience what life is like for the local people, and it gets me out of the urban jungle.

A few months ago I began looking in earnest for a website that is for hiking what OpenCycleMap is for bicyclists. All I managed to find are a few independent groups working mostly in Europe on independent projects. On a whim I registered Openhiking.org and Openhikingmaps.org in the hope that I can bring the OSM community of hiking enthusiast together to create a worldwide map of hiking trails.

Even though I am the current owner of both of these domains, I would be willing to turn over ownership of them to a non-profit organization that will promote both open mapping as well as hiking.
My vision for Openhiking.org is to create more than on online trail map. I hope it can grow into a worldwide community of not just OSM mappers, but hikers as well. My skills and knowledge are much less than my ambitions. But if just a few people will join me on my quest, I believe we can achieve as a group what many individuals have been working on for years.

I currently have an unlimited web hosting account that I’m willing to fund for the short term. I’m willing to give a few dedicated team members access once we get organized. If you’re interested in participating please contact me.Dedication is more important than knowledge. If we are committed we can acquire it along the way.